24 March 2017

Friday briefs

Daylight Saving Time was rescued by high school sports. Yesterday, the MT House’s state administration committee voted unanimously, and reports the Helena IR’s Jayme Fraser, without discussion, to table SB-206, Sen. Ryan Osmundson’s repeal DST bill that blithely sailed through the MT Senate by a veto-proof margin. Losing an hour of afternoon sunlight would, witnesses told the House’s committee, shut down outdoor sports because many schools didn’t have artificially illuminated practice fields. That revelation almost made me reconsider my opposition to the bill.

Rep. Alan Doane’s high-handed bungling of the MT House’s judiciary committee earned him a pithy rebuke from former Sen. Mary Moe. Writing today at Montana Cowgirl, Moe delivered a civics lesson wrapped in Old Testament wrath. If George Darrow were still alive, he might have admonished Doane in equally pungent terms. A former Republican legislator, George said that citizens testifying before the legislature had the right to be treated with courtesy.

Montana’s constitution does not explicitly require that legislators treat citizens with courtesy. But that is a political norm so widely observed that violations of it jar our senses and are greeted with disapprobation. Being treated courteously by legislators is a fundamental right. Rep. Doane would do well to abide by the first article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

As for SB-305, the debate over it has become far too intense. The county clerk and recorders, who, under the guise of saving money, are trying to prove that an all-mail ballot system is just dandy. If they get their way, they’ll pester the 2019 legislature to make Montana an all-mail ballot state. I’m convinced that many C&Rs hate the logistical challenges of setting up polls and dislike interaction with voters.

Allied with the C&Rs is the Democratic Party’s mail ballot and early voting caucus, which is convinced that early voting and mail voting increases turnout and helps Democrats. Citizens casting their votes in person at public polls on election day doesn’t fit the Democratic Party’s get out the vote operation. Democrats don’t trust their voters. They want to “bank” votes, and to have time to track down and harass voters with non-returned mail ballots.

As I’ve noted before, my investigations indicate that an all-mail ballot favors neither party, and is not likely to increase turnout in a special congressional election.

Ryan, Trump, and McConnell will find a way to pass a bill repealing the Affordable Care Act. They don’t give a damn what’s in it. They’ve spent seven years lying about the ACA and promising to repeal it. Not repealing it is not an option. They’re still lying about the ACA, they’re still determined to repeal it, and they don’t care how many people they hurt because the people they will hurt are not in the tax brackets they want to cut. If you have health insurance and need medical treatment, get treated now, and make sure you never get sick as long as the Republicans are in power.